I just received my Garmin InReach Mini, an SMS (text message) communication device that works through the Iridium satellite network. Theoretically, you can send and receive text messages from anywhere on Earth where there's a clear view of the sky.
I bought the Mini because I like to ride in out of the way areas where cell phone coverage is spotty or non-existent and there isn't a lot of vehicle traffic. It's essentially an insurance policy, in case I crack up and need to call for help (assuming I'm not dead or unconscious
).
The device itself is quite small (100 grams, as I recall). It costs $350, but you also have to sign up for a service plan to use it. Garmin offers a number of those. I opted for the unlimited messaging "professional" plan, for $65 per month (I didn't want a cap on the number of messages I could send for "free" until I'd had experience in how I'll use it, and I also wanted to get access to the programming APIs for the device, which are only available with the professional plans, because a long-term plan is to build custom tracking and crash detection software that'll run on my iPhone).
Configuring the device and the service plan was more complex than it should have been, IMHO. For one thing, you need to have multiple email addresses available when you sign up, one for the main account and one for each device (note: that may be an aspect of the professional plans, which are geared towards businesses with multiple users). Some of the website sign up instructions are not well structured (e.g., telling someone after they've entered 15 digit ID codes for the device that you are strongly urged to use a different email address for each device, which necessitated me canceling the registration and restarting it after I set up another email address).
I've yet to take the Mini on the road (hope to do that this weekend), but I've used it to send and receive a number of text messages from home. There are odd latencies where some messages get delivered quickly (within a minute) while others sent a few minutes later either take 5 or 10 minutes to arrive or, worse yet, appear to get lost in the system someplace and never arrive (note: that last issue, which is a relatively significant one, may be because Garmin is re-jiggering my account behind the scenes -- turns out I had an old Garmin account that I didn't even know I had, but there was no way for me to register the new device to that account, I had to create a new account -- yet another email address! -- and then have Garmin tech support merge the accounts).
Overall I'd give the Mini a B- or maybe a B so far, mostly because of the limitations of the Garmin website and messages occasionally not getting delivered.
More to follow as I gain more experience.
I bought the Mini because I like to ride in out of the way areas where cell phone coverage is spotty or non-existent and there isn't a lot of vehicle traffic. It's essentially an insurance policy, in case I crack up and need to call for help (assuming I'm not dead or unconscious
).The device itself is quite small (100 grams, as I recall). It costs $350, but you also have to sign up for a service plan to use it. Garmin offers a number of those. I opted for the unlimited messaging "professional" plan, for $65 per month (I didn't want a cap on the number of messages I could send for "free" until I'd had experience in how I'll use it, and I also wanted to get access to the programming APIs for the device, which are only available with the professional plans, because a long-term plan is to build custom tracking and crash detection software that'll run on my iPhone).
Configuring the device and the service plan was more complex than it should have been, IMHO. For one thing, you need to have multiple email addresses available when you sign up, one for the main account and one for each device (note: that may be an aspect of the professional plans, which are geared towards businesses with multiple users). Some of the website sign up instructions are not well structured (e.g., telling someone after they've entered 15 digit ID codes for the device that you are strongly urged to use a different email address for each device, which necessitated me canceling the registration and restarting it after I set up another email address).
I've yet to take the Mini on the road (hope to do that this weekend), but I've used it to send and receive a number of text messages from home. There are odd latencies where some messages get delivered quickly (within a minute) while others sent a few minutes later either take 5 or 10 minutes to arrive or, worse yet, appear to get lost in the system someplace and never arrive (note: that last issue, which is a relatively significant one, may be because Garmin is re-jiggering my account behind the scenes -- turns out I had an old Garmin account that I didn't even know I had, but there was no way for me to register the new device to that account, I had to create a new account -- yet another email address!
-- and then have Garmin tech support merge the accounts).Overall I'd give the Mini a B- or maybe a B so far, mostly because of the limitations of the Garmin website and messages occasionally not getting delivered.
More to follow as I gain more experience.
